STP IN RETAILING

It was 10:30 am in the morning. I met Sarika who had already reached office. She then introduced me to Sandeep, the manager of the store. He was a tall, thin and a fair looking man, with curly hairs and tired eyes. Looking at him one would feel like he has not slept for many days. Sandeep was a very gentle person and good by heart. He was also very helpful in nature and fond by all the staffs. Gradually as time passed we both became good friends.

As decided I had called a meeting of all the department managers from my team.
“Good morning friends, so what is your plan of action for the day?”
“I have to check with the warehouse team if all the stocks which had arrived yesterday have been in-warded or not”, said Shanti, her ear rings shimmering due to the lights falling on them from the spot lights above. She was the department manager for the ladies section. She was a cute, fair little short lady, nattily dressed, and an epicurean.She used to only concentrate on her department issues and not beleaguer in any other activities not concerned to her department. She was also very particular about time.
“I have called all my staffs in the first shift as we need to re-arrange the complete section of men’s accessories and men’s casual-wear, said Rajesh, another department manager from the men’s department. Rajesh was a fair guy, with a sturdy built, broad shouldered and having curly rough hair. He was a very aggressive and short tempered person and used to often end up in arguments.
“I will be taking a meeting with my team as to how to achieve this week’s target”, said Nilesh.
Rajesh sarcastically looked at him at laughed loudly.
“What is there to laugh in that?” confronted Nilesh.
“Now please don’t start it again”, Ashfaque intruded, sitting in one corner of the room.
Rajesh had this habit to rile Nilesh and tease him, especially because of the way he dressed and for taking long meetings to achieve targets, which used to not be achieved.
“ I will have to check how many jhablas (infant tops) have we received yesterday, as we are out of stock on the same”, said Aparna, a tall authoritative lady, with a slightly fair complexion skin, wearing a beautiful pink, fully embroidered luknowi pyjama kurta.(ladies ethnic top-wear and bottom-wear) She used to carry an all time smiling face. She was also in charge of the kids department along with Ashfaque.

After listening to all of them I said, “During my observation on the shop floor I have realised that a standard store check-list is not being followed. There was no specific work flow that the department managers and the team were following. No one also knew their job role in detail. I shall prepare one and give it to you all. I shall also give all of you your key responsibilities so as you are aware of your job role. This will help you do your job more systematically and efficiently.” Everybody gave a very quizzical expression.
“Ok, now tell me how many of you all aware of the S-T-P of Marketing. Most of you are from the B-schools and so should be aware of it.”
“Segmentation…..hmmm….P is for Positioning and T stands for… hmm..” replied Aparna with a low tone, with her finger on her lips, her eye balls looking up and forehead slightly lifted upwards, an expression showing her trying to recollect the words. “Targeting” replied Nilesh promptly.
“Great” I replied. “Are you all sure that all the products displayed in your section is placed in the right section. Can we use the concept of S-T-P to display our merchandise inside the store?”
There was not a single sound in the room. All started looking at each other, waiting for someone to reply. I explained to them assortment plan in merchandising, its importance within the store and how it can be related to S-T-P.
As I stood up I told them, “Today, first thing in the morning we will only concentrate on setting up the departments as per S-T-P. Any question?”
All of them stood up and got ready start up with the work assigned. As they moved out of the room I could hear them mutter to each other, the voices gradually fading away.

A typical retail store is segmented either as a lifestyle or a value format and the store is positioned accordingly after targeting the right audience. Every retail store may further be segmented within into various verticals, and these verticals are further segmented into departments and sections. Now onceOnce the concept of store format is clear one needs to clearly understand the departments, products and their assortment hierarchy within a store. Understanding product assortmenthierarchy (product mix) is very essential as it helps one to display the products in the right manner and easier to assist a customer buy a product. It also helps one to plan the layout of the store very systematically.
Many retail organisationstores have large number of brands and products within the verticals, like Apparels, FMCG and General Merchandise and are termed as product lines. Apparels which is referred to as Product Line. They offerconsist of shirts, trousers, t-shirts and other products. Therefore, it can be concluded that these stores have a wide product line with different products (shirts, trousers, t-shirts). These various options that are provided are termed as product width. The shirts within the apparel section are further in differentiated by styles, sizes and colours which are termed as the product depth. Therefore, it can be concluded that they have a wide product line with different product lines (shirts, trousers, t-shirts). Product line depth indicates how many product variants are there under each brand/ product line.

· In a retail store the various departments and sections are the segmentation of the entire store done as per customer type
· and the placement of merchandise on the various fixtures based on the layout inside the store are positioning of the merchandise
· and the product width and depth available is again for targeting the various types of customers inside the store.

Nilesh and Rajesh divided the team into two in the men’s department. Nilesh took care of the men’s formal wear while Rajesh took care of the men’s casual wear and essentials. They both had a tough time arranging the products as per hierarchy within the sections. Ashfaque took care of the boys wear while Aparna took care of the girls wear and infants section in the kids department. They too were having a tough time in displaying the products. Shanti and her team did not have much problem as her department was almost as per the product assortment plan. It took them almost a week to set up their sections. It was a hectic activity as they had to identify the stocks as per the product hierarchy, properly merchandise the stocks, identify the soiled and damaged goods, remove excess stocks from the fixtures, re-pack opened products, and so on. From that day onwards they decided to take care of their sections assigned to them and to maintain it religiously.